this post was submitted on 29 Jun 2023
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A Boring Dystopia

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Pictures, Videos, Articles showing just how boring it is to live in a dystopic society, or with signs of a dystopic society.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Rich people are doing fine.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Honestly, your average rich person would probably be happier if the world didn't suck so much. They're just too greedy/dumb to know it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Such is the human condition and one reason why we will never come together as a species. It's not in our genes to cooperate on a global scale. Unfortunately, we simply can't wrap our heads around taking care of billions of people in any meaningful way. So, here we are.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

These people don’t get depressed even when things are bad. Learn their secret to staying healthy

[–] TheRealLinga 1 points 1 year ago

Find out how to be happy like a rich person with this one genius trick!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Have you seen rich people? We'd think they'd be doing fine but the consistently find other reasons to be miserable.

Too much transactionalism, maybe?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Rich people aren't happy. From the day they're born till' the day they die, they think they're happy but trust me, they ain't.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

That is some high grade copium right there.

People with money can afford cost in both time and money for therapy...

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

Too much knowledge not enough wisdom.

It's exhausting.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I can't go outside rn without a KN95 because Canada is on fire and the smoke is blanketing everything. That definitely doesn't fill me with joy.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I nearly had a aneurysm when I hit up drive-thru for lunch today and they had a sign that starting July 1st the city of Edmonton will require a $0.15 surcharge for take-out bags.

Never mind the fact that the fucking price of a burger has almost doubled over the past 3 years, better make sure we punish people for switching from plastic to paper.

Single-use plastic shopping bags (including compostable or biodegradable plastic shopping bags) can no longer be distributed, and businesses must charge at least 15 cents for a paper shopping bag and at least $1 for a new reusable shopping bag.

[–] spankinspinach 3 points 1 year ago

Edmonton buddy!!!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

We, here in California, totally feel you, bro.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Well, it's becoming a civilisation-wide problem. Yeah.

But hey. Do not give up just yet. Okay?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Two things I can see.

  1. Life in the developed world getting tougher and the middle class is shrinking

  2. Social media seems to make people unhappier and angrier

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Major Depression was epidemic in the US back in the 90s, which prompted the SSRI boom. The problem was that few were ready to acknowledge the toxicity of normal post-industrial life, especially as the Soviet Union was collapsing and Reagan and George H. W. Bush were deregulating the work environment bact to Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

So yes, the dissolution of the middle class and rise of wealth desparity were already concerns, but social media wasn't yet a factor. This isn't to say it's not a factor today, especially when we use social media as an alternative to actual social contact.

The psychiatric sector is now recognizing we can't treat people using the standard medical model, assuming people can be treated while still in a toxic home and work environment. It would be like treating a kid for asthma while he was living in the Los Angeles smog crisis; there's a limit to how much treatment can help in those circumstances.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)
  1. Social media seems to make people unhappier and angrier

Is it something inherent to social media that's doing that, or is it the toxic algorithms designed to drive "engagement" and ad impressions that used by commercial social media that's doing that?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

The algos, ads and click-bait engagement economy exacerbate the problem, what is a consequence of the profit driven nature of current platforms.

A big factor is the replacement of actual social contact with social media. We need to get actually interpersonal once a week or so. Some of us need hugs or dancing or meals together, and the current overworked society doesn't really allow for this kind of engagement in its time constraints.

It's like living on fast food, rather than home-cooked meals.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Climate change. (Often in the manifestation of wildfire smoke.)

Not only the destruction of the environment per se, but the fact that science has shown us how to solve it, yet the populace is unwilling to make personal sacrifices or otherwise change their lives up a little for the greater good.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Capitalism is destroying the world, not the populace

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

No healthcare, unaffordable housing, billionaires blaming poor people for everything, corrupt politicians blaming poor people for everything, women losing body autonomy, somehow Nazis have returned...

Feel free to keep adding to this list

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Our sphere of awareness has grown to encompass the entire world. We are aware of everything nearly immediately. Our sphere of influence remains small for the vast majority of us. In my opinion this explains a lot.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Indeed. Nicely worded.

And couple this with the fact that we are actively being conditioned that it is up to us to change things: "it's your personal footprint that matters", "vote with your wallet"... It's not even that I disagree that personal action is important. It's mostly that these narratives are a way for the corporations and governments to shift the blame from systemic to personal. And then we end up with feelings of paralysis because you can only do so much and guilt about not doing enough.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

For me it comes down to basically having more and more things to feel worried/anxious about and fewer and fewer things to feel excited about every year. Partially I guess it is normal part of aging (but I'm supposed to be in my prime year for fucks sake) but there are also objectively shitty things that make it difficult to be hopeful that my mood/feelings about the world will improve. The acceleration in enshittification of the internet doesn't help. At least Lemmy is a breath of fresh air in this regard.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

This could be solved by easily dining on a few billionaires

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Weather in my case

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

well it is easy to be depressed (at least in turkey) inflation is 110% (keeps rising) you can't buy shit or do shit, fun activities to do outside are getting lesser and lesser, nothing feels the same anymore, and reddit closing down and the web getting shittier isn't helping. but life goes on

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Hey man Greek person here I hope in the future our countries can be friendly and we can all have peace of mind. I have hope that my and future generations will leave the past behind.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

i don't have any issues with y'all, it's the politicians that are causing the anger and i don't care an inch about them. i think the future generations will fix this issue

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

everyone? I'm not depressed. not elated but not depressed.

[–] cantstopthesignal 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

What's the latest existential crises that's completely humanity's fault this month? There's forest fires twice the size of Connecticut and the entire south is so hot people shouldn't be outside? I liked the one last month where we were worried about nuclear Armageddon.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

cost of housing is slowly bleeding my bank account dry and i literally wouldn't be able to survive here if i wasn't a strong enough cyclist to not need a car, but sure, everything's fine

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Homeless survey just came out for San Diego. Not only are most homeless not transplants from other states (as the popular myth goes), they grew up in San Diego. And they didn't suffer one big financial problem. They slowly fell through the rental system until there was nothing left they could afford.

We need housing reform. We needed it a decade ago.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

"B-b-b-but... muh backyard! I don't want to have to share it with, uhhhhh... 'criminals'! Building anything other than massively unaffordable single family homes and car dependent neighborhoods is going to ruin the character of the town!"

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

"Building bike lanes would ruin the quiet, village-like atmosphere of this town."

"What? Sorry, I can't hear you over the roar of traffic!"

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